Turkish F-16s Shoot Down Russian Su-24 Warplane Near Syria Border

Moments ago a big black geopolitical swan landed when newswires lit up with headlines that a Turkish F-16 shot down what was initially said to be an unidentified warplane near the Syrian border after it violated Turkey's airspace on Tuesday, a Turkish military official said, but the nationality of the downed aircraft was not immediately clear.

The Russian jet crashed in the mountainous Jabal Turkmen area of Latakia, where air strikes and fighting between rebels and Syrian government forces were reported earlier on Tuesday.

According to Reuters, Turkish F16s warned the jet repeatedly over the airspace violations before shooting it down.

A Russian Su024 aircraft goes down in Kizildag region of Turkey's Hatay province, close to the Syrian border, on November 24, 2015

Footage from private broadcaster Haberturk TV showed a warplane going down in flames in a woodland area, a long plume of smoke trailing behind it. The plane went down in area known by Turks as "Turkmen Mountain" in northern Syria near the Turkish border, Haberturk said.

Minutes later, the Turkish Lira sank like a rock while risk assets across Europe tumbled when the Turkish presidency confirmed that, as many had expected, the jet was a Russian fighter jet, which the Russian Defense Ministry later said was a Su-24. The Su-24 jet was warned after violating Turkish airspace and was then downed in line with Turkey’s rules of engagement, Anadolu says, citing officials at the presidency.

According to Todays' Szaman, in a statement, the Turkish military said a plane of unknown origin was shot down after it violated the Turkish airspace despite repeated warnings. The aircraft was warned 10 times in 5 minutes, the military said.

It said two Turkish F-16s were involved in the shooting down of the jet.

However, while moments ago the Russian defense ministry confirmed that the shot down plane was indeed one of its own in what will be deemed a clear act of aggression by a NATO-member country against Russia, the Russian defense ministry said it could prove the aircraft was over Syria for the entire flight.

The ministry added that the pilots ejected, according to preliminary info, and that Russia trying to determine their fates, Interfax reports. Interfax also adds that the plane was probably downed by fire from ground, and that it had been flying at flying at an altitude of 6,000 meters.

Meanwhile, Turkish media reported that either one or both of the pilots may have been captured by Turkmen forces located in the region.

TURKMEN FORCES CAPTURE 2 PILOTS OF DOWNED RUSSIAN JET: AHABER

Although there is confusion whether both or just one pilot was captured

SYRIA TURKMEN FORCES SAY 1 PILOT OF DOWNED PLANE CAPTURED: AA

Especially with a YouTube video spread showing what is alleged to be one of the pilots dead

A CNN Türk reporter in Yaylada? said a helicopter was hovering over the scene of the crash, apparently to pick up the pilots, but that opposition fighters were preventing it. The reporter later said one of the pilots was at the hands of Turkmen opposition fighters.

Prime Minister Davuto?lu has been briefed by the General Staff and ordered the Turkish Foreign Ministry to contact NATO, UN and relevant countries about the downed plane.

This huge escalation in the Syrian proxy war, one where a NATO country has openly attacked a non-NATO country (if Russia is correct and it did not violate Turkish airspace), comes after Turkey called this week for a U.N. Security Council meeting to discuss attacks on Turkmens in neighboring Syria, and last week Ankara summoned the Russian ambassador to protest the bombing of their villages.

Ankara has traditionally expressed solidarity with Syrian Turkmens, who are Syrians of Turkish descent.

We await a formal reaction by Russia, one which we doubt will be calm, cool and collected and may in fact see the Turkish aggression as an act of war if indeed the Russian Su never entered Turkish territory.

"So far, we have not heard the reason for the crash of our attack aircraft from the Defense Ministry. We know for sure that the aircraft was in Syrian airspace, over the territory of Syria," Peskov said, noting that the ministry's first statement on the crash was based on preliminary information.

"It would be wrong to make some kind of assumptions right now, to make any statements until we have the complete picture. Therefore, we just have to be patient. This is a very serious incident, but again, it is impossible to say anything without complete information," he added.

"It can be assumed that the president… will touch upon this issue during the talk with the king, and that there will be some kind of a reaction," Peskov told reporters when asked whether Putin would make a statement on the matter.

Elsewhere, the Turkish army released what it claims is a radar path analysis of the downed jet's flight path:

At first blush it is not clear how the airspace violating jet could have received "10 warnings" in the several seconds it took to cross what the Turks claim was the offending Turkish territory, especially since the plane ultimately crashed in Syrian territory.

I am sure he has a reaction already planned for a situation such as this. I imagine it will be financial, and be a *HUGE* sum of money. If the Turks refuse, then Russian jets get "free fire" on any Turkish jets in the area.

A Russian jet at full speed would probably be in Turkish airspace less than 15 seconds... the border 'finger' they have to annoyingly go around is rather small, so even if they did inadvertently go through it... Turks would have to have a pretty effing fast trigger finger

Russian jets have probably been skirting through it for weeks not and the Turks are pissed off like an angry old man on his lawn watching kids ride their bikes to close

so they had to have had their F16s already there, impossible to scramble them to intercept in the short distance a Russian jet could possibly accidently be in Turk air space.... Turks were probably waiting there to see if the Russians skipped into their lawn for a second and bam...

stupid.... i'll be surprised if even obamanuts defends the turks for something this dumb lol

Good theory, but don't forget that, Nato at the begining of Russian Air strike back in a month accused Russia violating turkish air space one of nato member, even if it was false.For that BS Russian's answer was by showing their capacity of Sending 30 cruse misiael fired from Russian War ship all gone under radar at knight via Iran and Iraq and shot the enemy. For w/c the BS of violating air space stoped but replaced by other lie that some of the misael droped on Iran...you remember those drama

On light of this, Russia willn't do such mistake even slightly, as NATO/USA are notoruries on fabricating such alligations.So my view is this another dare me lie bullshit prpoganda.

Further, for what reason would Russia need for entering Turkish air space? Russians only need to guard/patrol the border. This is clearly a retaliation for Russia whacking those oil tanker-trucks. I suspect that the US State Department is going to be working pretty hard here trying to come up with a spin that'll cover Turkey's ass as well as continue the charade of the two of them (and NATO) fighting AGAINST ISIS. So, yeah, this will likely produce one huge whopper of a lie.

This had to have been a total surprise to Russia. Might be the opportunity they've been looking forward to for disclosing some really nasty shit on the true supporters of ISIS.

A russian jet at full speed, would have to take a path 90+ km long to be in their airspace for 5 minutes. The only way such a path would fit in the entire area is if the plane travelled north to south from north of Iskenderun.

Exactly. For them to shoot it down, even if it was in their airspace, they had to regard it as hostile, i.e., be on a near-war footing with a considered enemy. But Russia has not actually attacked official Turkey assets in any way . . . their targets are the various invading forces and Syrian opposition military.

"Violated our borders" is bullshit as a reason for shooting the Russian plane down in any case. They knew it as a Russian plane . . . they deliberately started some very serious (I hope) shit. I doubt it would ever happen without US approval.

It's probably pay-back for cutting off the ISIS oil operation and Erdogan Jr.'s income stream.

Yes, Russia has no motive, nothing to gain by entering Turkish airspace. Patrolling the border is sufficient. And if Russia were actually chasing "bad guys" over the border I'd figure that they'd be doing it with more than just one plane, and that they wouldn't be downed by the Turks (via air-to-air).

I never really understood why the Russians weren't delivering MOAB's right behind the US-NUTZO weapons air drops you know give em enough time to show up to collect the little shit then show em what the big shit looks like ..... actually show them what thier buddies ass looks like from the inside when the blast wave hits em....... oh well nobody likes a Monday morning quarterback.